Saturn – Openminds.tvhttp://www.openminds.tv
Exploring UFOs and Extraterrestrial LifeWed, 13 Dec 2017 16:24:28 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.1New studies support the possibility of sea life on Enceladushttp://www.openminds.tv/new-studies-support-the-possibility-of-sea-life-on-enceladus/32557
http://www.openminds.tv/new-studies-support-the-possibility-of-sea-life-on-enceladus/32557#respondThu, 12 Mar 2015 15:28:57 +0000http://www.openminds.tv/?p=32557NASA’s Cassini spacecraft spotted geysers on the surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus ten years ago. And new research suggests that these geysers are caused by active hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the moon’s ice-covered sea–vents that potentially warm the water to a temperature that could sustain life.

Artist’s impression of Cassini in orbit around Saturn. (Credit: NASA)

After the geysers were spotted, researchers were able to determine that water ice was being spewed by these geysers. Then, using the Cosmic Dust Analyzer aboard Cassini, scientists concluded that the geyser spray contains ice crystals and fine silica dust. Recent tests reveal that the only way these fine rock particles can form is through a mineral interaction with alkaline water at a temperature of at least 194 degrees Fahrenheit, which also has a salinity of four percent or less. NBC News space writer Alan Boyle points out, “Those just happen to be the conditions that exist at a field of hydrothermal vents on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, known as the Lost City, where volcanically heated water makes it possible for weird types of life to survive in a sunless ecosystem.”

Although other processes could explain the geysers observed by Cassini, scientists believe Earthlike volcanic vents are the best explanation. And scientists note that this is the first time active hydrothermal vents have been seen outside of Earth’s seafloor.

Boyle explains, “The latest findings support the view that Enceladus has the ‘Big Three’ requirements needed for life on Earth: liquid water, the chemical building blocks for organic activity, and an energy source in the form of hydrothermal heat.”

Scientists are excited for future missions to Enceladus to better determine if the moon’s sea does, indeed, harbor life. Cassini will sample the moon’s water plumes again in October. But, unfortunately, the spacecraft doesn’t have the necessary instruments to detect life. And, it will likely be a while before any subsequent mission to Enceladus is realized. NASA’s priority is Jupiter’s moon Europa–another moon that may be home to extraterrestrial life.

Scientists made the discovery while observing Titan’s atmosphere using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile’s Atacama desert. “A single 3 minute observation revealed organic molecules that are askew in the atmosphere of Titan,” Universe Today explains. “The molecules in question should be smoothly distributed across the atmosphere, but they are not.”

Universe Today points out that, “When one hears there is a strange, skewed combination of organic compounds somewhere, the first thing to come to mind is life.” So far, researchers don’t have an obvious explanation for the discovery. But they are exploring other possible causes.

The ALMA. (Credit: ESO/C. Pontoni)

“These ALMA observations give us new insights into how organic molecules, the building blocks of life, form and evolve in a planet-like environment,” says astronomer Anthony Remijan of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. “It is exciting to imagine the new discoveries ALMA will enable as we look more deeply at other interesting objects in our Solar System.”

The research on these unexpected variations in Titan’s atmosphere was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Artist’s impression of the E-ELT on Cerro Armazones. (Credit: ESO)

Another powerful tool in the hunt for extraterrestrial life, the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), is currently under construction, and is also in Chile’s Atacama desert. This tool will be the world’s largest optical and infrared telescope when it is completed in 2024, and it will have the ability to directly image exoplanets and study the atmospheres of planets, helping scientists identify worlds that may support life as we know it.

In 2005, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft discovered water-rich plumes erupting from Enceladus’s south pole, leading researchers to believe the moon contained a subsurface ocean. And scientists feel that new data gathered by Cassini confirms this belief. Cassini measured the moon’s gravitational field, and in reviewing this data, scientists determined that Enceladus has more mass at its south pole than is superficially apparent. Scientific American explains, “Because liquid water is denser than ice, a buried ocean could contribute this hidden mass.”

This body of water in the moon’s southern hemisphere is reportedly as large or larger than Lake Superior in the United States, and is located on top of Enceladus’s rocky core at a depth of approximately thirty one miles.

Candice Hansen-Koharcheck, senior scientist with the Planetary Science Institute, told Discovery News, “There have been clues all along . . . But until you actually get this gravity data, it’s still kind of a circumstantial evidence-story. This is proof of the pudding.”

Artist’s impression of Cassini in orbit around Saturn. (Credit: NASA)

And Scientific American states that the presence of this ocean “boosts Enceladus’s ranking among the top places in the solar system to look for extraterrestrial life.” According to Cornell University planetary scientist Jonathan Lunine, “There are terrestrial organisms that would be perfectly comfortable in that environment . . . It makes the interior of Enceladus potentially a very attractive place to look for life.”

The Cassini spacecraft has three more scheduled targeted flybys of Enceladus to collect more data before it plunges into Saturn’s atmosphere.

]]>http://www.openminds.tv/likelihood-alien-life-enceladus-bolstered-confirmation-subsurface-ocean/26774/feed0Life could have been transfered to the moons of Jupiter and Saturnhttp://www.openminds.tv/life-transfered-moons-jupiter-saturn/25377
http://www.openminds.tv/life-transfered-moons-jupiter-saturn/25377#commentsMon, 09 Dec 2013 16:46:41 +0000http://www.openminds.tv/?p=25377A new study suggests that life could have been transferred from the inner solar system to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

Jupiter and its four moons. (Credit: NASA/JPL)

Panspermia, the theory that life can spread through space, has been studied by many scientists. Earlier this year, scientists posited that life on Earth was seeded by Martian life that made its way to Earth by hitching a ride on a meteorite. But for this latest study, astrophysicist Rachel Worth explains that she and her team at Pennsylvania State University “wanted to scale the simulations up in the hopes of seeing transfer to Jupiter and Saturn.”

Worth, the study’s lead author, and her colleagues analyzed the simulated trajectory of thousands of rocks to see where they might have traveled after being expelled from both Earth and Mars. According to Worth, the team simulated more than 100,000 individual fragments.

Most of these meteoroids slammed back into their home planet. A great many rocks also were either swallowed by the Sun or left the solar system entirely. In addition, large numbers hit planets more inward in the solar system from their home planet — for Earth, that means Venus and Mercury, and for Mars, that means Earth, Venus and Mercury. However, a small fraction of meteoroids did hit planets outward from their origin.

Rachel Worth. (Credit: Rachel J. Worth)

Scientists have previously suggested that organisms could survive in rocks ejected from impacts for up to ten million years. The researchers in this latest study calculate that approximately 83,000 meteoroids from Earth and 320,000 from Mars could have crashed into Jupiter within this time frame. Likewise, approximately 14,000 meteoroids from Earth and 20,000 from Mars could have impacted with Saturn in that time. According to Astrobiology Magazine, Since the moons of Jupiter and Saturn are relatively close to their planets, the meteoroids may have crashed into many of these moons as well. Researchers estimate that “Saturn’s moons Titan and Enceladus and Jupiter’s moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto should each have received between one and 10 impacts both from Earth and from Mars.”

The team’s findings suggest that, although the chances are slim, life could have potentially been transferred from the inner solar system to moons in the outer solar system. Worth explains that, based on her team’s research, “When planning missions to search for life on Europa or other moons, scientists will have to think about whether they can distinguish between life that is or is not related to that on Earth.”

]]>http://www.openminds.tv/daily-ufo-headlines-10113/23939/feed0Antarctic microbes provide clues to extraterrestrial lifehttp://www.openminds.tv/antarctic-microbes-provide-clues-to-extraterrestrial-life-880/17818
http://www.openminds.tv/antarctic-microbes-provide-clues-to-extraterrestrial-life-880/17818#respondWed, 28 Nov 2012 16:53:36 +0000http://www.openminds.tv/?p=17818New findings are giving researchers a better understanding of the extreme environments in which life as we know it can exist.

Researchers used drills and heated pipes to drill sixty feet into the Antarctic ice before reaching Lake Vida, a lake that has been isolated for an estimated 2,800 years. The temperature of the water was found to be approximately eight degrees Fahrenheit with a saltiness of about five to six times greater than average ocean water, which is what keeps Lake Vida’s water from freezing. The water was also found to be mildly acidic and completely depleted of oxygen. Yet, in this harsh environment, samples collected from the lake reveal that a “diverse and thriving community of microbes in the brine” has managed to survive for millennia.

The brine had very high levels of carbon-based compounds, the building blocks of life. It also possessed high levels of chemicals that generally react with each other, such as nitrous oxide and molecular hydrogen, suggesting they were being regularly replenished — a surprising discovery, given how the lake was isolated for millennia from any obvious external sources of energy to help create them.

Understanding extreme environments where life exists here on Earth helps researchers better understand where life might exist elsewhere in the universe. Peter Doran, one of the researchers who participated in the Lake Vida study explains, “By seeing what the boundaries of life are on Earth, that helps us when we go out and look for examples elsewhere.” Similar sub-surface lakes exist on alien worlds like the icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter, and researchers hope to one day drill through the ice on those worlds in search of life.

On Earth, where there is water, there is life. And as scientists are discovering, this holds true even in the most extreme environments. Time will tell if the same thing holds true throughout the universe.

In the famous words of the fictitious Dr. Ian Malcolm from the movie Jurassic Park, “Life finds a way.”

The detailed findings from Lake Vida were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

]]>http://www.openminds.tv/antarctic-microbes-provide-clues-to-extraterrestrial-life-880/17818/feed0Antarctica’s subglacial lake could aid in the search for extraterrestrial lifehttp://www.openminds.tv/antarcticas-subglacial-lake-could-aid-in-the-search-for-extraterrestrial-life-868/17508
http://www.openminds.tv/antarcticas-subglacial-lake-could-aid-in-the-search-for-extraterrestrial-life-868/17508#respondTue, 30 Oct 2012 18:05:24 +0000http://www.openminds.tv/?p=17508In the search for extraterrestrial life, scientists focus their search on “life as we know it.” And “life as we know it” requires water. But to better understand extreme conditions in which life might exist elsewhere in the universe, scientists are exploring an ancient lake beneath an Antarctic glacier.

A team comprised of British scientists and engineers plan to drill through nearly two miles of solid ice to reach the subglacial Lake Ellsworth to “search for life forms in the water and clues to past climate in the lake-bed sediments,” according to the project’s website.

CNN explains that scientists believe this lake, and others like it, “could be home to micro-organisms unknown to science, potentially holding secrets to the origins and limits of life on Earth.” And by learning about these micro-organisms, scientists could expand their understanding of “the possible conditions for extraterrestrial life, in locations such as the bodies of water thought to exist beneath the surfaces of icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter.”

The team spent the past sixteen years developing this project. Drilling is scheduled to begin in December 2012, at which time one-hundred hours of non-stop, hot-water drilling will take place. When the deep hole to Lake Ellsworth is complete, the team has only twenty-four hours to sample the lake before the hole re-freezes.

]]>http://www.openminds.tv/antarcticas-subglacial-lake-could-aid-in-the-search-for-extraterrestrial-life-868/17508/feed0Europa’s potential for diverse extraterrestrial ecosystemshttp://www.openminds.tv/the-potential-for-diverse-extraterrestrial-ecosystems-in-europas-ocean-823/16552
http://www.openminds.tv/the-potential-for-diverse-extraterrestrial-ecosystems-in-europas-ocean-823/16552#respondTue, 14 Aug 2012 17:20:21 +0000http://www.openminds.tv/?p=16552Although some scientists are pessimistic about finding life elsewhere in our galaxy, there are many who believe our galaxy has many potential places in which life could exist. And some of Jupiter and Saturn’s moons are among the most promising.

Two proposed models of the subsurface structure of Europa. (Credit: NASA/JPL)

Kevin Peter Hand, a planetary scientist and astrobiologist, recently explained in an article published on CNN.com, “These moons — worlds with names like Europa, Enceladus, and Titan — are covered with solid water ice, beneath which we have very good reason to believe that vast liquid water oceans exist.” On Earth, where there is water, life is usually present. Hand surmises that these moons with substantial water “could be great homes for alien ecosystems.” But in saying this, he carefully notes, “When I say ‘alien ecosystems’ I’m referring primarily to microbes and simple life forms. As much as I’d love to discover creatures like those seen in the movie The Abyss, I’ll be happy just to find a considerable speck of a microbe!”

Hand believes Jupiter’s moon Europa may have the perfect combination of liquid water and the chemistry needed to sustain life. He describes, “Europa provides an incredibly compelling place to go to search for a second, independent origin of life and it’s a place where we might find lifeforms that are alive now, today.” As someone who has explored the deepest depths of Earth’s oceans, Hand knows very well that our understanding of habitable environments here on Earth continues to change with discoveries of ecosystems in the deepest parts of our oceans, and so too does our understanding of potentially habitable environments beyond Earth.

And with two-to-three times the volume of all the liquid water on Earth, Europa’s ocean is likely to have a wide variety of ecosystems.

]]>http://www.openminds.tv/the-potential-for-diverse-extraterrestrial-ecosystems-in-europas-ocean-823/16552/feed0Scientists want to search Enceladus for extraterrestrial lifehttp://www.openminds.tv/scientists-want-to-search-enceladus-for-extraterrestrial-life-814/16254
http://www.openminds.tv/scientists-want-to-search-enceladus-for-extraterrestrial-life-814/16254#respondTue, 31 Jul 2012 17:19:47 +0000http://www.openminds.tv/?p=16254With Curiosity’s approaching Mars landing, there is much attention on the search for life on the red planet. But many scientists believe Saturn’s moon Enceladus is a better place to look. This tiny, icy world is only 310 miles in diameter, but some consider it the best place to look for extraterrestrial life in our solar system.

Surface of Enceladus. (Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)

Astrobiologist and professor Charles Cockell of Edinburgh University is one scientist who would rather send a probe to Enceladus than Mars or any of Jupiter’s moons. He believes that:

Primitive, bacteria-like lifeforms may indeed exist on these worlds but they are probably buried deep below their surfaces and will be difficult to access. On Enceladus, if there are lifeforms, they will be easy to pick up. They will be pouring into space.

As The Guardian explains, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is responsible for the recent interest in Enceladus. The probe discovered that the moon has an atmosphere, and that geysers of water are erupting from its surface into space. But the probe’s most recent discovery shows that “these geysers contain complex organic compounds, including propane, ethane, and acetylene.”

NASA astrobiologist Chris McKay tells The Guardian that Enceladus is the perfect place to look for life. “It has got liquid water, organic material and a source of heat. It is hard to think of anything more enticing short of receiving a radio signal from aliens on Enceladus telling us to come and get them,” McKay explains.

This moon seems like the perfect place to send a sample-collecting mission. And although proposals for missions to Enceladus are in the works, any mission to this icy moon will require patience. Any such mission will take a reported thirty years to complete.

So, for now, Mars will have to do.

]]>http://www.openminds.tv/scientists-want-to-search-enceladus-for-extraterrestrial-life-814/16254/feed0NASA scientists may have discovered life on Titanhttp://www.openminds.tv/nasa-scientists-may-have-discovered-life-on-titan-952/15589
Fri, 08 Jun 2012 17:10:19 +0000http://www.openminds.tv/?p=15589NASA scientists may have discovered life on Saturn’s moon Titan.

Researchers used data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft to study the chemically complex surface of Titan. Based on their research, scientists say it is possible that a “primitive, exotic form of life or precursor to life” may exist on Titan. This research is outlined in two separate papers; one in the journal Icarus, and one in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Saturn's moon Titan, as seen from the Cassini spacecraft. (Credit: NASA/Cassini Imaging Team)

The research published in Icarus concluded that hydrogen gas found in Titan’s atmosphere disappeared at the moon’s surface. And as the Telegraph explains, this suggests that alien forms could be breathing on Titan. Similarly, the paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research notes a lack of the chemical compound acetylene at Titan’s surface. Chris McKay, an astrobiologist at NASA Ames Research Center, explains that “this lack of acetylene is important because that chemical would likely be the best energy source for a methane-based life on Titan.” Scientists believe that life on Titan would consume hydrogen as life on Earth consumes oxygen.

Cassini also detected the presence of something appearing to be an organic compound on Titan’s surface that scientists have been unable to identify.

McKay explains the significance of these studies, stating, “If these signs do turn out to be a sign of life, it would be doubly exciting because it would represent a second form of life independent from water-based life on Earth.”

Although this new information suggests the existence of extraterrestrial life on Titan, Darrell Strobel, a Cassini interdisciplinary scientist at Johns Hopkins University who authored the paper with the hydrogen study, explains, “The new hydrogen findings are consistent with conditions that could produce an exotic, methane-based life form, but do not definitively prove its existence.”

Cassini will fly by Titan many more times, and will hopefully be able to provide additional information.